The longer the better?

[XReaper]

if something is good than it´s simply good, no matter the overall length. if something is bad than it stays bad, regardless of possibly haunting you for 2 or 50h. to me it doesnt matter much, been pleasantly surprised, but also greatly dissappointed by stories of various lengths.

btw. literary garbage will most likely always feel like a drag, whereas good stuff leaves some kind of void in ones heart upon ending.

[InvertMouse]

Thanks for sharing these thoughts everyone. A lot of interesting ideas on here !

[Limerence_]

I usually end up loving 50h+ VNs more than I should. This is probably because to me, it immerses me more into the story and allows me to understand the characters better. I was bored to tears during Grisaia's common route and I even dropped Rewrite for a few weeks. However, by the time I finished both, they became two of my personal top VNs.

Short VNs don't hook me as much as long ones do but some of them are still fantastic. For example, Eden* was an extremely short read but still a very memorable one.  

[Mr Poltroon]

I've never been one to appreciate quality. The best way I can generally describe my tastes is as "I like what I like... and I tend to like romance/comedy moeblobs".

Now, one thing I can definitely note is that I always prefer longer VN's over shorter ones. Regardless of quality.
If it's good, but short, I won't enjoy it. I'll be left unsatisfied. If it's mediocre, but long, then I'll enjoy it. If it's good, and long, even better.

I don't tend to like stuff I don't like, no matter the length.

 

This initial view has been somewhat skewed as I started quality checking VN's: VN's are way too long. Wow. When I have to actually pay attention to everything I'm reading, it's like my time investment triples.

[solidbatman]

A VN should take as long as it needs to tell its story. There should not be some time limit set. "Oh hey guys, we're about to go into the 30 hour range, lets wrap this up." On the flip side, VNs should be less like Clannad or LB! where shit gets dragged out and out and out for no reason as I find that acts as a detriment the story. 

[Rose]

I came into this thread with this face: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), unfortunately it didn't last long but I got a short laugh out of it.

Going with the usual "whatever length is needed for the story to be told", that's the ideal imo. :3

[Templarseeker]

As long as the story of a particular VN I'm reading is appealing enough that I get lost track of time immersed in the VN and the translations is decently well made. When those criteria of mine are met, I wouldn't mind much in regards of length or the duration it takes in reading a specific VN. It all comes to how much "time" I actually have in reading them as oftentimes I'm busy with real life issues and other boring stuff, College studies and work, also I doing some research on occultism and reflexology from time to time, leaving me so little time to play or even read a VN...

Such a sad life I have

 

[Zakamutt]

Filler is in the eye of the beholder. There are well-liked series that are purely SoL / comedy in the non-vn world; it's legit material. I don't think the view that the meat of a moege-style VN is purely the character routes and drama or whatever is to be considered some kind of objective truth. If you consider attaching the two to each other as objectively wrong or whatever, well, a lot of people would disagree with you.

Length lets you get depth - of emotion, of story, of character. For more emotion, try to make people get to know and love the characters before doing things to them (usually through SoL or more quiet moments). For depth of story, write a longer story arc. For depth of character, you can use both. If you've seen me groan about OELVNs promising a zillion routes with an alarmingly low estimated playtime, the shallowness likely to occur is why.

I do think that knowing how much is enough is a skill, and a better writer can write a story of the same depth in less words. However, I think the best way of going about the whole deal is to infuse scenes, even seemingly trivial ones, with meaning - this can be details picked up later as plot points, or making sure to actually give you those reasons for liking characters, or showing reasons why protag-kun and bishoujo-chan would want to bump naughties. One Thousand Lies comes to mind somewhat, as a decent few of its more ridiculous SoL scenes shine in an entirely new light after you know more about the characters. It also has SoL scenes that are just for fun though - but that's also an emotional curve thing! A balance keeps people interested. This can be engagement / energy based or tone-based.

...Uhh, I think I went off on a tangent... anyway, I like long VNs, but they don't have to be. I'm quite enamored with shorter VNs and doujins for this reason. I think length is primarily useful when it comes to making you attached to a cast of characters; otherwise, it really just needs to be as long as the story being told ""should"" be.

I'm a NEET and have fuckloads of time though.

[LiquidShu]

I like short video games. When I see 20+ hours for campaign I start to not want to play it as much, also depends on the game. In regards to visual novels I normally prefer medium length onward. I play short VN's and enjoy them just as much as a longer VN, it's just when I'm paying money for a VN I prefer to have more routes and what not. 

Kinda weird how I prefer to pay money for a short video game, then on the other side, I prefer to pay money for a long visual novel. 

[ChaosRaven]

I usually prefer mid-sized VN's since most long VN's I've read didn't really have more content but were just incredibly bloated instead.

Story VN's usually suffer more from this than typical nakiges or moeges since they've often just one very long route instead of several smaller ones, resulting in an almost endless borefest.

It's like watching a movie in slow motion - even Star Wars would suck like that.

There are exceptions though. I would love to read one of the text monsters from BaseSon because they've actual content behing it and not just text spam with 5 different backgrounds for 50 hours.

[Yuuko]

Depends on how busy I am.

If I have lots of time I prefer longer VNs so I won't finish the VN in 2-3 days. I want to spend more time on the same title (like 1-2 weeks) and think about it rather than just finish in 1 day and move to a new one.

If I'm busy reading shorter titles is nice. It kinda sucks to need 3 months to finish a single title.  

If the VN has a character I love I wouldn't mind reading it forever though like Shinku games. Spent probably 150 hours on the whole series lol.

[Darklord Rooke]

I love long stories done well, unfortunately they often lose their way at some point. My favourite story in a video game is still The Walking Dead, and that was only a ten hour experience. The characters were vivid without 40 hours of 'getting to know you' scenes, the experience powerful, the writing was crisp. The Wolf Among Us was similar, really well told story.

(They're not VNs but they'll do for this example  )

EDIT: Although I hate replaying episode 2 of TWD. Sorta gross ...

[Suzu Fanatic]

2 hours ago, Rooke said:

I love long stories done well, unfortunately they often lose their way at some point. My favourite story in a video game is still The Walking Dead, and that was only a ten hour experience. The characters were vivid without 40 hours of 'getting to know you' scenes, the experience powerful, the writing was crisp. The Wolf Among Us was similar, really well told story.

(They're not VNs but they'll do for this example  )

EDIT: Although I hate replaying episode 2 of TWD. Sorta gross ...

Enjoyed The Wolf Among Us, but I've shied away from TWD - but if you endorse it, I might give it a shot - always down for a good story.

[finiteHP]

Like most have already said, I prefer long games and VNs as long as they stay interesting throughout.  There are some exceptions since my favourite VN so far is only a few hours long.  A lot of this is probably because I'm an avid reader, so I enjoy becoming absorbed in what I'm reading.  My main complaint with short games is price.  I'd rather pay $80 (current price of games here) for a 50+ hour game than $80 for a five hour game.  This is less of an issue with VNs since their prices seem to be more tuned to the length.

[Codesterz]

My reasoning is very simple. Getting attached to a character takes 'time'

[ratboi]

I am of the opinion that length does not matter. One of my favourite VNs is only like 5-7 hours? Also I quite like your VNs which are quite short 

[Kabu]

I'm not really good at explanations but for me, it really depends on what I've read recently. Like for example somewhat recently I finished Da Capo 2 (which unexpectedly became one of my favorites) and then dove right into To Heart 2. Both of them are 30-50 hr SoL VNs so afterwards I was in the mood for something a lot shorter and at least a little actiony.

I'm personally capable of enjoying almost anything but I do have my moments where I can get burnt out on lengthy vns and certain genres for a bit and need to move on to something a bit shorter to recover.